Interview with Karan Joshi, the man behind @WeAreMumbai

WeAreMumbai, is a brainchild of a 21 year old, Gujarati boy living in Bombay. His name is Karan Joshi a.k.a. @thatdarkcoffee on Twitter. He believes, “What you do in your twenties, reflects in your forties”.

He is an Advertising graduate from Mumbai University and is a social media professional who has worked with digital agencies such as Jack In The Box Worldwide, Gozoop and WAT Consult. He has handled various brands like Pepsi India & Nikon India.

Karan Joshi started his entrepreneurial journey and began branding himself at the age of 15. From being the local newspaper vendor at the age of 15 and serving cold drinks in a photography workshop to learn photography for free, this guy has evolved and grown since his teenage years.

Having built a solid career as a professional photographer, he has worked with leading channels and brands like MTVIndia, Colors television, blueFROG and many more. He developed interest in Social Media as soon as he graduated at the age of 19 and began working for WAT Consult.

We interacted with Karan Joshi about his brainchild and a very popular rotation curation Twitter account @WeareMumbai.

How did WeAreMumbai came into existence?

Initially I had seen @WeAreSweden and always thought why there’s no such account in India. So while I was travelling to work in a local train, I thought of registering the handle @WeAreMumbai through his phone. The account was idle for the next 15 days. Later I started tweeting from the handle, following relevant people from Mumbai and reached out to them.

How did you manage to attract the initial followers?

People started loving the concept and started following back. WeAreMumbai got 100 followers in just 3 days. This was it; I announced WeAreMumbai’s first curator (an influencer) and kick started the journey. Followers began increasing by the day. I got some of the most famous people on board to curate like @rotalks, @roshanabbas, @mojorojo, @kiranmanral, @anaggh and others!

What roles did brands play while WeAreMumbai got popular?

As weeks passed, I asked a brand to sponsor goodies for the #WeAreMumbaiQuiz, knowing the potential and reach of the account. @MadOverDonuts agreed to sponsor vouchers for the quiz contest. That was the start of roping in brands by WeAreMumbai.

I started approaching brands and started selling my brand to leading brands like Pepsi India, Star Sports India, JW Marriott, Homeshop18 to name few. It was a sound decision of integrating brands knowing the potential of WAM.

How has the growth of WAM been?

WAM has become one of the most influential accounts on Twitter in Mumbai. Today, WAM is 15K+ followers strong within a year.

Karan organized the first tweetup within 4 months which was hosted by famous radio jockey @rotalks and was attended by personalities like @SachinKalbag, @CaramelWings etc.

WAM got published in Singapore’s digital daily within 5 months.

What do you do apart from WAM?

I have a day job of managing Pepsi India’s digital property during IPL and dedicate my time to WeAreMumbai at night. I conceptualized, designed and published WeAreMumbai’s website (www.wearemumbai.net).

What has been your strategy?

The strategy is clear. Have smart influential tweeples from Mumbai share their insights so that the followers of personal accounts of each curator also starts taking interest in their work. Even the campaigns that WeAreMumbai does for any brand has a connect with Mumbai.

WeAreMumbai currently is completely handled by me but I plan to make a team in the near future and am constantly looking out for passionate people to join.

What are your Future Plans?

WeAreMumbai won’t just be on Twitter anymore. WeAreMumbai has a good expansion plan, which will be revealed on 29th September, which is when WAM completes one year.